Congo rebels kill 13 and abduct children amid Ebola outbreak

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed 13 civilians and abducted a dozen children in an attack at the centre of the latest deadly Ebola outbreak.

The Allied Democratic Forces rebels attacked army positions and several districts of Beni on Saturday and yesterday, Captain Mak Hazukay Mongha said.

The rebels have killed hundreds of civilians in recent years and are just one of several rebel groups active in the country’s north-east.

Angry over this latest attack, Beni residents yesterday carried four of the bodies to the town hall, where police dispersed them with tear gas.

Last month, Ebola outbreak containment efforts had to be suspended for days in Beni after a deadly rebel attack, deeply complicating work to find and track suspected contacts of infected people. Since then, many of the new confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in Beni as the rate of new cases overall has more than doubled.

The latest attack comes as another armed group shot and killed two medical agents with the army, the first time health workers have been killed by rebels in this Ebola outbreak.

It was a “dark day” for everyone fighting the deadly virus, the health minister said.

Mai Mai rebels surged from the forest and opened fire on the unarmed staff with the army’s rapid intervention medical unit at an entrance to Butembo city, the health ministry said.

Thedaytimeattackappeared premeditated, with civilians left unharmed, the statement said.

The medical staff had been placed in “dangerous zones” to help national border health officials.

Confirmed Ebola cases have reached 200, including 117 deaths.

Aid groups have expressed alarm after the insecurity and sometimes hostile community resistance led the rate of new cases to more than double this month.

Health workers in this outbreak, declared on August 1, have described hearing gunshots daily, operating under the armed escort of UN peacekeepers or Congolese security forces and having to end work by sunset to reduce the risk of attack.

The health ministry has reported “numerous aggressions” against health workers, and early this month two Red Cross volunteers were severely injured in a confrontation with wary community members in a region traumatised by decades of fighting and facing an Ebola outbreak for the first time.

“Health agents are not a target for armed groups,” health minister Oly Ilunga said.